Thread: Whites drive out Latinos who saved their town

It's obvious this Australian news reporter understands our immigration problems.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au

Whites drive out Latinos who saved their town
A Pennsylvanian community is making immigrants feel unwelcome Catherine Philp reports from Hazleton
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August 22, 2006
FRANCIS Rodriguez, a Dominican immigrant, moved from the big city to Hazleton, a small town in northern Pennsylvania, in search of a better life. He found what he was looking for: a home, a job, schools for his children and a friendliness he had never encountered in New York.
But three years later, he is contemplating leaving, like so many other Latinos who have packed their bags.

"Why would you stay where you aren't wanted?" he says.

Until last month, Hazleton was just another small town, its coalmining boom days long gone. Now it has shot to prominence as the US's most hostile environment for illegal immigrants.

On a warm July night, as crowds of white and Latino demonstrators lined the streets, Hazleton city council passed its Illegal Immigrant Relief Act, a tough charter that suspends the licences of businesses that employ "illegals", fines landlords who rent to them and declares English the only official language of the city.

"I'd had enough," says the Mayor, Louis Barletta, blaming the crime wave of the past five years on the illegal immigrants. "The city was being destroyed."

The law made a celebrity of the Mayor and prompted the spread of similar proposals across the US. With the country's illegal immigrant population at an estimated record of 11 million, immigration has become the hot topic.

This is, after all, a country built on immigrants, such as the Italians, Irish and Germans who once worked in Hazleton's mines before they were shut.

However, now the immigrants no longer come from Europe but overwhelmingly from Latin America.

Legal immigrants feel the city legislation, which some call the Nazi law, is aimed at the whole Latino community. "It's in the open now - people feel it's OK to hate," says Anna Arias, who sits on the Governor's Committee on Hispanic Affairs.

Ms Arias says Hazleton was dying until the Latinos began moving there. In 2000, the town had only 23,000 residents, down from 38,000 in the 1940s. Five years later, there were 30,000 residents and 60 new businesses.

"We brought this town to life," she says. "Does the Mayor want a ghost town again?"

Legal immigrants are pinning their hopes on a lawsuit launched by the Puerto Rican Legal Defence and Education Fund against the city law.

But the Mayor is gearing up for the battle. "People walk into the office and just throw money on the table," he says. "That's how important they feel it is that someone stands up for legal citizens, for Americans."

What happens in Hazleton may well determine what happens across the US. "This is a landmark lawsuit. If it's stopped here, it'll be stopped all over the country," Mr Barletta says.

I went an 'splained it to them. :P

Brian
You are one excellent newsman.
Did you send to the mayor of Hazelton?

No, been too busy. A lot of good news stories have been popping up this evening.

I'd rather have a ghost town than a town filled with illegal aliens.

W

"It's in the open now - people feel it's OK to hate," says Anna Arias, who sits on the Governor's Committee on Hispanic Affairs.

Would like to know her opinion of La Raza...

Guess its okay for this group to breed hate and use every means possible to get what they want?!

These people live by double standards all of the time, I have seen it.

"It's in the open now - people feel it's OK to hate," says Anna Arias

Yes Ms. Anna Arias, people hate lawbreakers.

Originally Posted by ALIPAC

I'd rather have a ghost town than a town filled with illegal aliens.

W

I'd rather live by myself then live with a bunch of illegals.

"Why would you stay where you aren't wanted?" he says.

Good question, why aren't more illegals getting the message.